TechVoicesSouth Africa will redraft its AI policy after the first version was written by AI
The communications department withdrew a white paper that contained hallucinated citations. A new draft is expected before cabinet late this financial year.
Illustration. Reporting is based on company statements and published accounts of the round or the bill.
South Africa is rewriting its national artificial-intelligence policy after the first draft was withdrawn for being, in part, generated by AI.
The document, from the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies, included hallucinated citations. Minister Solly Malatsi pulled it. Deputy minister Mondli Gungubele has said a revised draft should reach ministers before the end of November, and cabinet before the end of the financial year.
Gungubele’s argument for having a policy at all is the usual one, and still true: AI is already in use, with or without a white paper, and a country that wants to modernise its economy cannot sit the technology out. He also warned that if countries never agree on how AI is governed, the gap will be used by people who do not wait for permission.
Wamkele Mene, secretary-general of the AfCFTA secretariat, has put a number on the prize. He told Business Times that Africa’s digital economy is estimated to be worth more than $700 billion by 2035, and pointed to the protocol on digital trade as the rulebook that is supposed to make investment possible.
A policy withdrawn because the machine invented its footnotes is an awkward start. It is also a useful one. The next draft will be read by people who now know to check the citations.
